Super Bowl Commercials 2012: Leaked Super Bowl Spots Guarantee Dull Sunday

I am all for opening one gift on Christmas Eve or diving into a hot plate of appetizers, but the latest trend in advertising is ruining the Christmas Day of football and filling us to the brim before the main course. 

One after another, one great commercial was taken off the pile that would surprise us on Super Bowl Sunday. Honda delivered Ferris Bueller, then Acura gave us Jerry Seinfeld. Now we have Volkswagen and a revival of some Star Wars themes. 

Look, I am not about to become some Internet curmudgeon that shouts from his front lawn that the good ol' days are long gone...but the good ol' days are long gone. 

At least for the Super Bowl, they are. We used to sit around with a room full of apprehension and guacamole. We had no idea what the big game would bring, how the halftime show would fare or what commercials would make us laugh. 

Now, we have one big question answered by companies that leak their commercials a week beforehand. That funny Downy commercial that hearkens back to the classic Mean Joe Green? Saw it, and you can, too, right here. 

There is also the VW commercial of a dog that is hellbent on getting in shape. Pretty funny stuff that would have had one chick in the party scream, "So cute." But, we have already seen it, right here. 

Throughout this piece, we have shown what are already our favorite Super Bowl commercials, well before kickoff. 

The sad thing is that I can't even blame the ad companies that put out these spots. They are all well over 30 seconds—a portion of time that would cost the companies $3.5 million, according to Forbes Magazine.

If you want to bring the funny, you are already pushing the brevity limit with half a minute. So, it makes sense that the full complement of hilarious be doled out over a minute and given to potential buyers that live and eat around the Internet.

I get that. However, I don't have to like it.

We will get streamlined commercials or just out-and-out reruns. At least we still have the halftime show to surprise us—which it never does.

There is always the game to look forward to, but who wants to watch that when there used to be perfectly good commercials on TV?

I kid, but only somewhat. Soon, every last ad will be provided well before we all sit down to watch the big game, and that makes me so sad, and I don't think even the Puppy Bowl could cheer me up.

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